Planet Mad

I got back from Peak this morning, and have spent much of the rest of the day recovering. As expected, the week involved a lot of cooking (of which, more later) and standing in queues for the toilet. The girls had a fantastic time and are buzzing with excitement about the next camp. We've even talked about taking them abroad, although in 2007 rather than next year. My Guides were great, particularly my two young leaders, and I am proud of every single one of them. I'm sure that there were the usual fallings-out and arguments, but they never got as far as me, so that suits me fine.

Jen and I QM'ed the camp together. Although she has done a lot of camp cooking together, I've not QM'ed properly since I was 17. Despite this, we worked very well together and I realised that I know more about cooking than I thought I did. However, there have also been small learning moments - did you know that 5kg of pasta is about right for 40 people, plus a bit extra for seconds? Or that Guides can be persuaded to eat cous-cous by describing it as 'mini-pasta'?

My favourite moment of the whole camp was the arrival of the food inspector to check our kitchen (an inspection probably brought on by the incidence of food poisoning that kept an entire troop quarantined on their sub-camp for 36 hours). I was outside washing up while Jen was inside supervising girls who were chopping food for lunch. The inspector arrived, took one look at the kitchen and said, "Ah, labelled coloured chopping boards, anti-bacterial spray and soap, blue food gloves, different coloured cloths... you're fine." There wasn't really much he could have argued with!

Tomorrow I head off north for SAGGA camp. I feel bad abandoning Rob again, but he's got a proper job and I'm a lazy slacker. He moved in two weeks ago and I've already been away for 8 days: I'm obviously not much cop as a girlfriend. Hopefully he's finding enough to keep him amused in my absence. Better go and get packing... have fun!